


One Hundred Yesterdays (Part 1)

by QuietDarkness



Series: Simplicity and Complexity (Harrisco) [19]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: M/M, harrisco
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-23
Updated: 2017-05-23
Packaged: 2018-11-04 04:52:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10983750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QuietDarkness/pseuds/QuietDarkness
Summary: While attempting to stop a meta whose powers rival Zoom's in difficulty and strength, a terrible turn of events lands Harry in a desolate, barren world with his new foe, dangerous creatures, and little to no resources. He has no way to get home, and is steadily losing hope that the team will ever come for him. But sometimes hope reveals itself in the unimaginable...'Opposites don't just attract. They catch fire and burn the entire city down.'(Part 19)





	One Hundred Yesterdays (Part 1)

_Harry smelled wet earth._

_That was the first thing that came to him long before he was able to open his eyes. The ground beneath him was cold and damp, like right after an Autumn rainfall. The dewy, decaying scent of fallen leaves and wet trees embedded itself into his senses. When he was finally able to force his eyelids open, all he saw was gray sky and barren tree limbs, void of leaves and anything resembling green. The air was as chill as the ground beneath him, seeping into every pore and sore muscle against his will._

_He needed to get up. Needed to move, assess the damage. But that was turning out to be far harder than it should have. Every limb felt like they were made of pure lead. There was a distinct, strange, warm pain in his lower back. There was a pulling in his chest, like his muscles were attached to some kind of string and someone was randomly tugging at it. He didn't seem to have the coordination he should, as though whatever signals his brain was sending to his body just wasn't getting there._

_It felt like he laid there for hours, struggling in frustration just to get one hand to go up._

_But then everything came together quickly after that. Eventually he was able to sit up, get a really good look around. And there wasn't anything he recognized. Just arid trees, a damp, debris covered forest floor, and a dimly lit world he didn't recognize. No signs of people, buildings or civilization. Great._ "One thing at a time, Harrison." _He whispered, and was distinctly aware of how his throat ached by saying just those few words. He ran his hands over his body, bit by bit. He couldn't find any damage, any reason for the strange sensations in his form. It wasn't till he reached behind him that he felt a slick, warm wetness. Pulling his hand back in view revealed blood covered fingers. It wasn't exactly like he could really look to see, but further probing with fingertips revealed a cut, about half a foot long and far too deep for comfort. There was a lot of blood. But it seemed it had stopped sometime while he'd been unconscious, which was confusing. Wounds like that didn't stop bleeding of their own accord._

_After he was pretty sure that was the only damage to be had, he spent the next ten minutes getting to his feet. It was the most grueling, frustrating, pain in the ass thing he'd done in ages. He was practically hugging a rotting tree by the time he was standing. Though his arms were cooperating much better, his legs still seemed to need time to get with the program. So he stood there, holding on to the peeling, rotting bark of the tree and waited, looking around, trying to put the pieces together of what had happened._

_They'd been in the breach room when Zero Point had attacked again. A meta with the unique ability to manipulate gravity, which was deadly when he did it inside the human body. He'd been the most dangerous meta they'd gone up against in awhile. To say he was hard to beat was an understatement. He'd nearly killed Allen. Thank goodness for his regenerative capabilities. It had eventually been Cisco's idea to change the rules a bit._ 'Send him some place where he can't hurt anyone but himself.' _The idea was simple, really. When Zero attacked again, lure him to the breach room. Cisco would send him through to an uninhabited Earth they'd found among the many in the multiverse. Trap him there for good. All great in theory. But nothing could be simple, could it._

_Everything went smoothly at first, only when Cisco opened the breach and Barry rammed Zero into it, Zero manipulated gravity waves to yank Harry in with him. And looking around, Harry was pretty sure they were both now stranded on this barren Earth. The multi million dollar question was... where was Zero?_

_By the time an hour had passed, Harry made his slow way through the woods. Stiff legs were finally cooperating. He'd managed to find his pulse rifle not far from where he'd woken up. It wasn't damaged, which was pretty much the only bit of good luck he was having. It seemed the farther he went, the more barren things got. And to make things worse, the sun was setting. He needed to find a place to hold up. But everything was exactly the same no matter where he looked, which was honestly fucking disorienting. Eventually he settled for climbing up into a particularly large, sturdy tree. It didn't have leaves to hide him, but at least he wouldn't be on the ground and he would hear anyone coming through._

_Night fell and the temperature dropped considerably, which wouldn't have been all that bad, but his clothes had never dried from being on the damp ground. And his back, though still strangely not bleeding, was hurting like he'd been ground in a blender. He could also feel the edges of a fever coming on, which meant infection. As he settled on a particularly wide branch, legs hanging to either side and back to the trunk, he couldn't help but wonder what was taking the others so goddamn long to come get him. They should have been here by now. He should have been home, with a hot cup of coffee and Cisco acting way too concerned about his back. But instead he was stuck in apocalypse world, no doubt with Zero somewhere out there, probably pissed and looking for r-_

_His thought was cut off by a sudden, shrill and terrible sound that was so very distinctly inhuman. It had Harry freezing in place, hands gripping the pulse rifle so tight that his knuckles blanched. Even in the steadily growing dark, he could still make out shapes. And what he saw was something about the size of a horse, a thick, muscular shadow padding easily through the forest debris. Only it was not a horse. Not even close. It looked like some sort of leopard, but with leathery skin that shined oddly in what little light the world had to offer. And the teeth. Fuck. The mouth on that thing would give him nightmares, he was sure of it. It made slow circles around the tree he was in, claws digging into the ground at some spots. It wasn't till it lifted its head that Harry realized... the thing had no eyes. And yet it was making its way around so damn easily, random high pitched tones escaping its vibrating throat. Echo location, maybe?_

_It seemed to know he was up there, that much he was sure of. And just to prove him right, it began climbing the tree. Way too large cat like claws dug into the bark, the sound of wood grinding heard as it got closer and closer. Everything in Harry tensed, adrenaline began to surge through his body. He wasn't about to be this thing's dinner, not if he could help it. He aimed his pulse rifle at it, but he knew he had to wait for a clear shot. If he missed, he was as good as dead. The seconds seemed to go far too slow, till finally the creature, so impossibly large and terrifying, was a mere five feet away from Harry. It balanced precariously on two different branches, growling low, rows of teeth bared._ "Sorry, pussycat." _Harry whispered, and fired._

 _The creature fell from the tree in a snarling, swirling mess of limbs and claws. It hit the ground with a thud, and Harry kept firing, aiming expertly. Once, twice, three times. Till it stopped moving and the smell of burning flesh filled the air._ "Shit..." _he muttered, still wide eyed and wary. This Earth might not have people in it, but it sure as hell wasn't uninhabited. As the quiet began to settle in around him, sounds filling up the night from various animals in all directions, Harry tugged his jacket closer around him. There was no way he was going to sleep now. He held his pulse rifle ever ready for a showdown, and despite the ache in every inch of his body and the steadily growing fever, he refused to close his eyes. Refused to be anything's prey._

_If fate was kind, Zero Point would be faring far less well. And the team would find Harry before morning. Or so was the hope he repeated in his head, over and over again, like a mantra or a prayer. One that, he would realize in time, would go completely unheard..._

* * * 

Three months.

Harry had been gone for three months since Zero Point had dragged him through the breach with him. Cisco had nightmares about that day all the time. Especially that moment, just before Harry disappeared. The look on his face, the startled expression, Harry's glasses flying to the ground, his back catching on a twisted and broken railing far too hard before poof. He was gone. And Cisco couldn't do anything about it. Zero Point had slammed one last gravity wave out, throwing Barry, Caitlin, Joe and himself like rag dolls. The result was broken bones in all of them, and Cisco's glasses shattering into far too many pieces. 

He'd been working non-stop since then to fix them. He cannibalized pieces from Reverb's goggles, he refitted the power source, he adjusted everything to the exact data collected from when he'd opened the breach to Earth-714. But they weren't working. He could still vibe, but opening the breaches without the help of his goggles was impossible. He just couldn't see the way. And so he spent every damn day, every waking moment, trying to fix them. 

His most recent battle with the goggles had him going without sleep for nearly two days now. He was exhausting himself more and more as time went on, to the point where Caitlin was getting angry at him. But he almost didn't care. He had to fix his goggles, he had to open the breach, he had to get his husband home. Safe. Alive. It should have been an easy fix. He knew every damn part, every inch and every piece of his goggles. So why couldn't he find the problem? Why couldn't he fix them?! Harry would have been able to do it in a matter of minutes. It figured, the one guy who could solve the problem was the guy who needed saving. 

"Cisco." Jesse's soft tone met his ears and he lifted his head slowly. He was sitting on the steps in the breach room for about the millionth time since all this started. He came back here when he hit a road block and needed to clear his head. Only problem was, every time he was in this room he was reminded of what he'd lost... how he failed. He let out a steady breath and looked at Harry's daughter as she sat down beside him. She looked as tired as he did. She was running herself ragged going between Earths. Between keeping the business running and being Jesse Quick on Earth-2, and constantly coming back to this Earth for updates and to help out here, she was just as tired as Cisco. But she leaned into him, resting her head on his shoulder as she let out a slow, deep sigh. 

They sat like that for a long time in the relative dark. It was quiet, the only real sounds coming from the ventilation system. They'd sat like this before, several times now. Neither one of them said what they were thinking, simply because it was too painful. Her father, his husband, might be dead by now. But it was a reality neither one of them was willing to face. "I miss him." Jesse whispered all of a sudden, so softly that at first Cisco thought he'd imagined it. But she lifted her head, one hand wiping at a wayward tear. "I used to think that he was too hands on sometimes, ya know? Too over-protective. But..." she cleared her throat a little, looking down at the floor, "I miss him hovering over my shoulder, or interrogating me about a date." Her smile was sad and small. Slowly, she met Cisco's gaze. 

"When I was sixteen, I went to the prom with this guy, Dugger. And I was so excited. I didn't even tell my dad I had a date, because I knew he'd just scare the crap out of him." She stretched her legs down the steps, glancing to her booted feet. "I told him I was just gonna go with a bunch of girls. And he believed me. I hated lying to him." She folded her hands in her lap then, her eyes swimming with the memory she was retelling. "Then halfway through the night, Dugger showed me a room key to some motel down the road from the school. At first I just laughed at him. I thought it was a joke. But he told me if I wanted to continue being his girlfriend, then we needed to take things to the next level. But I wasn't ready for that. So I told him no. And you know what he did?" She glanced at Cisco, who shook his head quietly, his dark eyes watching her softly. She let out a small sigh. "He told me I would probably have been a bad lay anyway, and he took my best friend to the motel instead. I was so angry at both of them, and so hurt."

She turned to look at Cisco, then, shifting her body to face him fully. "Even though I lied to him, Dad was the first person I could think of to call. He came and got me, didn't ask questions, didn't throw a fit. He just... held me and let me cry and rant and rave. And when I finally got it all out, he just hugged me and told me he was proud of me. And that if I let him, he'd make sure Dugger never got to have sex with anyone ever again." She smiled at that, and so did Cisco. He had to, he couldn't help it. It was so like Harry. But slowly, Jesse's face sobered and then her eyes grew wet with tears that wanted nothing more than to tumble freely. "What if we can't fix the goggles?" She asked quietly, "Or what if we do, but when we get there, he's already..." her voice trailed off, and Cisco found himself shaking his head instantly.

He'd had that thought a million times over. What if Harry was already dead? But no. No he couldn't believe that. Harry never would have stopped looking for him. He never stopped trying to get Jesse back from Zoom. The least they could do was hope that Harry was still alive, pissing someone or something off. It was also more than that for Cisco, though. Something in his very core told him that Harry wasn't dead. Something so deep and real that he just couldn't deny it. "Jesse," Cisco lifted his hands and wiped the now falling tears from her face, "He's alive. I know it. I can't explain how or why, but I do. We can't give up." She closed her eyes and moved into him, a sob escaping her throat as she hugged him tightly. He folded his arms around her, trying to offer what little comfort he could.

He felt tears stinging his own eyes. His chest got tight with the now familiar ache of grief that wanted so badly to be recognized, but Cisco refused to let it take hold. He let his eyes wander to where the breach had been those months ago, and he took in a deep breath, letting it out bit by bit. "We're coming, Harry." He whispered, a prayer in itself to whatever gods might be listening. No one answered. No one ever did. But that was the thing about hope... it was always silent, until it wasn't.

* * *

_'In reality, hope is the worst of evils, because it prolongs the torments of man.' -Friedrich Nietsche_

* * *

_There was no real winter here._

_It rained every day. Every god forsaken damn day. And every night got colder than a jilted woman. Harry eventually settled into a routine that was more about making it from one day to the next than actually living. This place, which he had come to calling Nevermore due to its Poe-esque nature, had a hell of a learning curve. He was living a crash course in survival, and the more time went by he was honestly surprised he'd made it this long. Even more surprised that Zero Point had. Apparently, something about this Earth completely subdued the meta's abilities, which made him just as human as Harry. And that, honestly, gave Harry all the advantages. Which was why the two times they'd gone toe to toe, it was Harrison Wells who'd come out the victor. The only reason Zero was even still alive was because they'd gotten attacked by a Twilight Saber. The same kind of creature Harry had seen his first night on this Earth. Yeah, he was naming things now. Cisco would have been so proud._

_It turned out that the Sabers had pretty tasty meat on their bones. Along with just about every other creature he'd managed to hunt so far. And there were many. It was almost like a prehistoric world, minus dinosaurs. Though the animals he did come across were distinctly alien, two thirds of which were predatory and very dangerous. It made him wonder sometimes what happened to the evolutionary chain on this world that absolutely no primates, humans or the like evolved, and all these odd creatures existed._

_Thinking about seemingly useless things like that was one of the few things that kept him sane anymore. He talked to himself. A lot. He wasn't entirely sure if that was healthy or not, but it got him through the tedium sometimes. Thanks to the miniature clean energy renewing power source in the pulse rifle, he was never without a weapon. But he'd learned early on that many of the predators on this Earth were attracted to sound. In fact, all of the predatory species here had no eyes. It was a strange dichotomy from the herbivores and smaller omnivores, who all had regular features. It didn't make the predators any less deadly, however. Most got around with some form of sonar, others by sense of smell or both. There wasn't a night he didn't come across one or more. And not a night he didn't fight for his life. Because that was just how it was. The predators always came out at night. So he'd learned to sleep what little he could allow himself during the day._

_There were other odd things about this Earth. The water itself was intriguing. For all intents and purposes, it looked like, tasted like and worked like typical water. But that first week, when he'd accidentally plunged himself into a river while on the run from something that reminded him of a bear with lizard scales, he'd figured out something pretty remarkable about it. The water, whether rain or river or puddle, had healing properties. Every injury he'd gotten since he'd landed here, and there had been far too many for his liking, healed within hours of being exposed to water. Sure, he had some pretty gnarly scars now. Fighting the things he had to fight always left him with some sort of wound. But the water kept him alive. And drinking it made him feel stronger. Though part of that he was sure was the fact that he was always on the move. The muscles in his body had more definition now. Running was much easier than it ever had been before, thanks to the amount of it he did on a daily basis. If he wasn't living in a literal Hell, he might have been appreciative of those facts. But as the days stretched on, and the nights grew longer, he was beginning to feel a little bit like he was losing his mind._

_It started first with hearing voices._

_There was a bird here that could mimic literally everything, down to the exact tone of voice and word usage. He would have been impressed if the first time he'd seen one, it hadn't been swearing,_ "Son of a bitch!" _at him in his own voice over and over again. So when he first heard someone say,_ 'Harrison' _over and over again in hushed whispers bouncing back and forth from every direction, he thought it was a flock of them trying to mess with him. Till he realized it was a woman's voice he was hearing. And he knew damn well there were no women on this Earth._

_There was a glorious moment of thinking that maybe it was Snow. And hope flared wild and raging until he got his wits about him and remembered that she never called him Harrison. He was Harry to everyone he knew, except for Jesse. The hope was then replaced by anger and nonsensical yelling till the whispering stopped and he was left heaving heavy breaths in the chilly morning air._

_A few days after that was the first time he saw her._

_Tess._

_That was when he really knew he was hallucinating. Because Tess was long dead... and yet he would see her slipping through the trees, stepping over a log, dipping her feet into a river. She'd whisper his name, and every time he'd squeeze his eyes shut and pray for her to go away. She was always gone when he opened his eyes. It was a terrible reality, knowing he was losing it. That this place was making him go insane, slowly chipping away at his humanity, his spirit, and now his mind. What more could be taken from him? Well, his memories. He still had those. And he wasn't about to give them up for anything._

_He'd spend his nights sitting in the quiet, just thinking about Jesse and her first steps, or the first time Cisco told him he loved him, or the impromptu food fight he'd had with Caitlin, or the heart to heart talk he'd had with Barry about apologizing to Iris after a fight. His family, his friends, his life. He couldn't lose those memories. So he called on them relentlessly. Problem was, as time went on, he felt himself forgetting. Faces, voices, moments, feelings. It was all fading away, becoming ghosts of ghosts. And now he got to be tortured by Tess. A hallucination of a ghost. Wonderful._

'You don't really think that, do you?' _He heard her voice, a strange echoing thing without real substance. But it was right behind him. He froze halfway through skinning a deer like creature with tusks and a tail like a lion. He'd managed to catch it and was trying to carve the meat from it with a bone knife he'd made weeks earlier. He had to get what he could from it before nightfall, because then he'd have no choice but to abandon it to the scavengers. Slowly, he turned, ears burning with the fear of what he might see... or not see._

 _But there she was. Smiling at him. Perfect and healthy and looking oh so very real. She tilted her head a little at him, her long white summer dress and flowing blond hair not even budging in the chill breeze that made him hunch his shoulders momentarily._ "You're not real." _He stated, his voice grating and raspy. She just shook her head at him, taking a step toward his little makeshift firepit. She looked like she had so many years ago. Vibrant and happy and so full of a glowing joy that he never could figure out._

'That's not true.' _She said easily, sitting down on an overturned log he'd dragged into the little clearing. She stretched out her legs and crossed them at the ankles, bare feet without a single speck of dirt on them._ 'Real is a pretty relative term for someone who has seen the things you've seen.' _She smiled so bright and warm it made something deep inside of him ache. He tore his eyes away from her, staring down at the carcass before him. He rolled his shoulders, swallowing, then simply went back to work. He needed to ignore this. Needed to just keep working. After about ten minutes, when he'd gotten it totally skinned, he looked back over his shoulder and frowned. She was still sitting there, in the same exact position watching him. He stood up, wiping his hands on his pants. He'd given up on being clean a long time ago. Not that he didn't bathe. But being dirty was pretty much part of the deal when it came to surviving in this hell hole._

__

_He didn't say anything to her, not at first. He just stared at her, jaw clenching, eyes narrowing. Then he looked around, reaching down and picking up the first rock he could find. Wordlessly, he threw it at her. Not some careless toss, not some haphazard throw. He lobbed it with all his strength. And it went right through her chest, bouncing off a tree behind her and tumbling out of view. He slowly smirked, oddly satisfied with the result._ "Not real." _He said harshly, a tinge of anger in his tone. Why, oh why, did he have to be hallucinating?_

__

_But Tess just chuckled at him, shaking her head, then motioned to him with one hand._ 'I may not have an understandable form, Harrison. But I assure you, I'm very real.' _Harry nearly bared his teeth at that, taking three long strides toward her._

__

"You're a hallucination. You're nothing more than a figment of my over-exhausted mind." _He nearly yelled, resisting the urge to kick at her to get his point across. Instead, he balled his hands into fists and hovered over her._ "I don't want you here." _He growled, meeting her gaze and feeling... feeling empty. Suddenly, all the rage melted and he was just numb. It happened so quickly that he nearly staggered backward because of it. Hands went out grasping at air as he nearly stepped into the firepit. Once he caught his footing, he turned to look at her, only to see that she was now directly in front of him. His heart nearly leaped out of his chest._

__

'Perhaps I should be more clear.' _She said, lifting a very real looking hand and touching his cheek with it. But he couldn't feel her fingers._ 'I'm not Tess. I simply look like her. I took the form I thought would comfort you most.' _He blinked at that, mouth opening slightly, confusion filling him up and spilling out, but he couldn't voice any opposition._ 'I'm the embodiment of the one thing you've been holding onto since you got here, Harrison.' _She said, dropping her hand and smiling at him with such impossible warmth._ 'Hope.'

__

"Hope." _He repeated, but demurely. He took a slow step backward._ "Hope has a form." _He added incredulously. But it didn't seem to deter her... it... whatever. She just folded her hands together and watched him._

__

'Yes. For the purposes of your survival,' _She glanced around a moment,_ 'I do. Normally, I don't like to manifest.' _she looked back at him._ 'But I can feel your will fading. Your spirit growing dark. I've been watching you from that very first moment you lay bleeding on my ground. I've watched you fight to survive, taking no more than you need, killing only to live, following the laws of nature without realizing it. And I've watched you hold on with iron fists to the people you love most. I've seen the memories you've replayed in your mind, over and over again like movies on repeat.'

__

_Harry felt his mouth go dry, felt everything in him screaming that this was insane, that this wasn't real, that he'd finally snapped. But there was something about all this that seemed strangely familiar, strangely... real._ "What are you?" _He found himself whispering. And she smiled, so bright and clear, like so many of the sunrises he'd seen in this place._

__

'For now, we'll stick with Hope.' _She said, moving toward him._ 'And I'm going to help you survive just a little while longer. You see, Harrison... you've given me a great gift. An insight into a species I have never come across. And this alone is worth more than you can ever imagine. That being said, I want you to live. And though it will be a great loss to me, I want you to go home. To be with your husband, your daughter, your family. Because though you bring a unique perspective to my solitary existence, you don't belong here, Harrison.' _Slowly, she raised a finger toward his head. And something in him seemed to understand that she wasn't going to hurt him. But his suspicious nature wanted him to step back, to put distance between them. Instead, he stood there like a rock. Instinct was nowhere to be found._ 'You have to hold on for a little while longer. They're coming for you, Harrison. So... have Hope.' _She touched his forehead._

__

_And before he could reply, or even think of replying, the lights went out._

__

**Author's Note:**

> (To be continued...)


End file.
